The
Trollish language is a primitive,
animalistic language that is defined by harsh, brutal and extremely loud sounds.
Slobbering, snorting and growling are among the most common ways for a troll to
produce words. This has often yielded the thought that
trolls do not speak at
all, but merely let loose all their orifices in (often despicable and filthy)
different ways to communicate. That a true language system underlies these
brutal and gruesome sounds has baffled scholars in whole
Sarvonia. Despite difficulties
researching the language (being eaten does not exactly motivate scholars to plan
field trips up the Troll Mountains), the knowledge that we have about the
language is growing as time passes. In this entry the specifics of the TRULTRUL
language will be explained with several examples of this fascinating tongue.

Research History.
Research on TRULTRUL, or "Trollish", has led many researchers to dead ends in
the past. The primitive and animalistic quality inherent to the language long
seemed to be beyond the grasp of scholars. However, since Mandrick Mizzle
published his (now utterly famous) "On Trollish Phonology", the field of
Trollish Studies has leaped forward and is
now in a new era of discovery and contemplation. Much of the information below
can be found in "On Trollish Phonology", although Mizzle wrote the book with a
focus primarily on phonology (as the title suggests). It may well be that new
features of the will come to the fore in the time to come.

Origin.
The origin of the language of the trolls
is hard to indicate. As trolls
live all over Caelereth (Most tribes
may be found on the Sarvonian continent,
but some inhabit Cyhalloi and Nybelmar
as well) it is impossible to speak of TRULTRUL in the sense that all trolls
speak the same language. The language described below is mainly the language
used by the Kloighut, or Mountain Trolls. This tribe lives in the Troll
Mountains in north-eastern Santharia.
Mandrick Mizzle, our leading expert on Trollish, has spent many years trying to
approach these trolls and listen to their speech. In his book "On Trollish
Phonology" Mizzle reasons that as the language of the trolls shows such an
enormous conservative nature it might well be that the primitive language spoken
by the Kloighut reflects the Trollish language in general, that is, spoken by
all trolls in Caelereth. This has, up
to this day, neither been verified or falsified. Mizzle does state that
dialectal variations are unavoidable considering the distance between the
different tribes, the isolated character of the tribes and the time that has
passed without inter-tribal contact. More research will have to be carried out
on the speech of the other Trollish tribes,
like the Ighut, Ghereghut and
Ighmeshut.

Principles.
The research of the Trollish language was thrust into existence by the discovery
that the random seeming grunts and hisses of the trolls were in fact part of a
language system. This language system has, since that groundbreaking discovery,
been researched on a very sporadic basis (as it is not easy to blend into
troll society) and the knowledge that we
have is limited. It is, however, the believe of some scholars that this limited
knowledge perfectly reflects the way that trolls regard their language, or any
language for that matter. Trolls are very
close to animals in the way they behave and interact with the world around them.
This animal nature is reflected in their language. The vocal chords of the
average troll are mainly used to growl and
snort, so the language is based on growls, snorts, hisses and other animal
sounds (as long as it is very loud and impressive). The vocabulary of the trolls
is limited to a set of primitive words which they use for just about everything.
Primitive, in this sense, means that the lexicon is limited to semantic items
which are essential to a primitive culture.

Words such as animal
(MOSH), troll (TRUL), death (MARGH), day/night (KHOLEM/MARGHOGH) are primitive
in the sense that a primitive culture would develop them at an early stage.
Words such as argumentative, corrosion, subtle, etc. are words which will not be
found in the Trollish language. As troll society does not seem to have changed
dramatically during the last ages, so has the language remained in a
conservative state. It is possible that the
trolls do not see the need for more words as they can interact with one
another without difficulty. If trolls has been a species fond of trading and
interactions with other species it might have developed a completely different
TRULTRUL, with much more influences of other languages and lexically quite
advanced. The only exceptions to the primitive vocabulary seem to be the words
with a religious connotation. This is of no great surprise, as troll religion
underlies their entire society. This religious vocabulary shows the interwoven
nature of religion and life in trollish
society, as religious terms (inner sight (GHUAKOL), shaman (KLOHMAGHI), etc.)
seem to be part of this primitive word-set.

Pronunciation.
TRULTRUL words are presented with capitals to indicate the loud nature of the
language. As indicated above, trolls basically construct their words using
(loud) animal sounds. It is often hard to distinguish words from basic growling
or grunting. Scholars, like the famous troll-expert Mandrick Mizzle, have
endeavoured to create a list of the types of pronunciation common to most
TRULTRUL words. Mizzle's "On Trollish Phonology" is a hefty work comprising of a
detailed description of all TRULTRUL phonology. The following sounds are most
common to Trollish vocabulary and each reflect a basic animal sound:

The Growl
A sound is created at the base of the throat and is accompanied by a baring of
teeth. The guttural sounds emitted this way form the basis of the
troll phonemic system. For example: ZAGHAKHA
'mmm, tasty, yummy' comprises of two distinctly Growling sounds; GH and KH.

The Spit
A harsh stop is created by emitting a short, powerful burst of
air (mostly accompanied by a good amount of
spittle) whilst pronouncing a T, P or K. For example: UT 'clan, tribe, group';
the final sound of this word is a very loud, clearly pronounced T.

The Slobber
As the name suggests, these sounds are often accompanied by a large amount of
saliva. A slick, slobbery noise which is produced with pursed lips and an active
tongue. For example: MOSHMOSH 'food'; the SH sound is very frequent in words
with a connotation of 'food' or 'meat', probably due to the over-salivating
nature of the trollish digestive system.

Hisses
There are two different types of hisses: The first is used in TRULTRUL words and
comprises of a outflow of air through clenched (and often bared) teeth. This is
represented by a normal S in Trollish words. For example: SNI 'little, small,
lesser, weak'; This type of hiss is often accompanied by a nasal sound (M or N)
which causes the trollish nose to dip down
(this probably has some societal significance which we have not yet been able to
discern).

The second type of Hiss (also called Mizzle's Hisses) is the hissing sound used
between words. The semantic load of this hissing will be discussed in the next
paragraph. This type of hiss is always an inward flow of air through clenched
teeth. At first no real significance was attributed to this hissing between
words until Mandrick Mizzle published his "On Trollish Phonology". In this
publication he discusses the usage of Mizzle's Hisses and opened a whole new
insight with regards to the complexity of the Trollish language.

Scraping
All vowels sound as if they are pronounced while the
troll is scraping stones in his throat. This
probably has a very logical anatomical explanation, but, as a dissection of a
troll has not yet been possible, we do not know where this eerie scraping noise
comes from. This Scraping is often impossible to reproduce by other species, but
shouting the vowels with a very hoarse voice will get people halfway.

It should be stressed that the sounds described above form the
largest part of the Trollish phonemic system. It does not constitute the entire
pronunciation as trolls will use every type
of sound producible by all types of orifice (yes, all types) to make itself
heard by other trolls. Syntax.Trollish is a Statement Language, which
means that instead of fully crafted sentences it relies heavily on
context-sensitive short statements (with Mizzle's Hisses a lot of subtleties can
still be inherent to these statements). This reflects the nature of the trolls;
there is an enormous focus on the present and almost no need to delve into the
past or imaginary future. It had been assumed that trolls have an alternative
way of communicating to one another, as the limited vocabulary of their language
would be insufficient on a day to day basis. The language itself would then only
be used when larger groups converse and when trolls command other trolls. This
has proven to be a misconception. TRULTRUL is the day to day language of all
trolls, enabled by a language system which underlies the spoken words, Mizzle's
Hisses.

Below is an example of one of the few Trollish
conversations that we have successfully transcribed. The exact translation of
this sequence of TRULTRUL has long been difficult to discern, but through the
work of Mizzle, a new understanding of the conversation has been reached. (Note:
Mizzle's Hisses have been added between /.../, more on these types of hisses can
be found below.)

Hear me, oh wartribe!
A fierce creature dwells in the forest;
Five trolls have died (because of it)
Not today, but this night we will attack!
Attack! I desire the death of this beast!

- Translated by Mandrick Mizzle, On Trollish Phonology, appendix C -

As you can
see, the hissing between words can carry different semantic loads to the words
and even indicate markedness or focus. The translation by Mizzle demonstrates
how a string of utterances can be interpreted as full-fledged sentences. Mizzle's Hisses.
When trolls speak they frequently create
sharp intakes of breath between words. These intakes of breath are produced with
clenched teeth which creates a hissing sound. Although more research still has
to be done on this subject, it seems as though these hissing sounds convey
deeper meaning and context to the spoken words. Past researchers have posed the
theory that these hissing sounds between words were caused by the bad shape of
most troll teeth. Mizzle, however, has shown that this conception is quite
erroneous, as the hiss is not always used between words and by pointing out that
the semantic load of the different types of hisses is a conscious element of the
Trollish language. This hissing aspect of the language points to the animalistic
and primitive nature of the language, as it is akin to the
growling/mewing/hissing sounds made by animals all across
Santharia. They can be threatening,
soothing, calm, etc. For example the TRULTRUL sentence:

ZAGHAKHA /Predatory Hiss/ SNITRUL would be indicating that the
human or
elf in question is being sized up for
their nutritional value.

ZAGHAKHA /Hostile Hiss/ SNITRUL would mean that one should start
running, as the troll is using
ZAGHAKHA to indicate that it is intending to slay that particular person.

It should be obvious that
the true complexities and nuances of troll
language is difficult to discern, as there are more than fifty different types
of Mizzle's Hisses attested in his "On Trollish Phonology". It may well be that
the true meaning of TRULTRUL is lost to all other races, but the study of
Mizzle's Hisses can lead to a better understanding of this fascinating race. Non-Verbal.
Non-verbal elements in Trollish languuage can be summarized as follows:

Numerals
As encountered in the example of TRULTRUL above,
trolls can count. They, however, do not have words for the different
numerals (it is unclear whether the concept of calculating is known to
trolls, as the last researcher who tried to
get a troll to add and subtract was
subtracted himself). Numbers below 10 are shown by lifting the required number
of fingers. So, for example, if a troll wants to indicate that he saw three
pebbles, he would raise three fingers and say aloud SNIGHSNIGH. Ten lifted
fingers means either 'ten' or 'a lot'.

Here/There/Yonder & This/ThatTrolls create the basic distinction between
close by and far away by either pointing at their feet to indicate closeness,
pointing to a distant (but still observable) spot to indicate 'there' and
stretching their full hand towards a general direction to indicate 'yonder'.
'This' and 'that' are indicated by pointing at the object in question. It is,
however, not clear if trolls have a notion of the difference between 'this' and
'that'. Pointing at objects could also always mean 'that', without an inherent
understanding of the difference between the locations of multiple objects.

Vocabulary.
Below are the words that our researchers have gathered so far. It should be
noted that trolls are capable of combining
words to indicate something for which they do not have one single lexical item.
The different types of Mizzle's Hiss have not been included in the table, but
can, as discussed above, subtly change the meaning of each word. Here is the
list:

AAGH!

Attack!

AAGHUT

War tribe

EKH!

Stop!

GH

Being (untranslatable literally. Has the
connotation of "sentience" or "living". Animals and some plants can be
described with the GH syllable.)